


Throwing the Pebble

by donutsweeper



Series: Telepathic Talks [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-27
Updated: 2012-04-27
Packaged: 2017-11-04 09:45:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It saddened the Doctor to think how much Jack had changed in the time they'd been apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Throwing the Pebble

**Author's Note:**

> Minor references made to "The Last of the Time Lords".

The Doctor looked down at Jack, stretched across the bed, finally asleep, and sighed. There was no easy grace, no relaxed nature to this slumber; the Doctor could still see the tension in the shoulders, the ever present clench to the jaw. It was moments like this that really made it clear how much Jack had changed in the time they’d been apart. It would be so easy to blame the Master and that endless year on the Valiant, but there was more than that.

Leaning over, the Doctor ran his hand over Jack’s back, slowly, gently moving up the spine, trying to soothe the involuntary flinches Jack made with the touch. “Is it my touch or anyone’s?” he muttered, “I suppose the fact you’re willing to sleep at all should be enough.”

When his hand reached the shoulder blades the Doctor threaded his fingers in the hair at the nape of Jack’s neck, petting and stroking, soothingly. “Shhh,” he whispered as he reached out with his mind as well, “you’re safe.”

Not surprisingly, Jack’s psychic defenses were in place, far stronger than they had ever been before. The Doctor had expected that. He didn’t even try to plow through them. He could have, certainly, despite the psi training from the Time Agency and the years and years Jack had had to perfect those shields; trying to keep out a Time Lord who'd been granted an intimate link in the past was nigh on impossible. But forcing his way through would do more damage than good, at least in the long run.

_‘I’m here,’_ he said instead, directing his words at the strong walls he butted up against. _‘I’m not going anywhere. Not again.'_ There was no responding answer. He hadn’t really expected there to be, but, like tossing a pebble into a lake, the ripples would still remain, long after the stone had sunk. His words, at least subconsciously, had been heard. Eventually Jack would be ready, and the Doctor wasn’t going to let him down then.


End file.
